VMware Tools Core Service has stopped working

[DuncanSuss]

Until I installed Mavericks a couple of days ago, my MacBook Pro had OS X 10.6.8 and was quite happy running Fusion 3.x.x with a Windows 7 Professional guest.

After installing Mavericks, I downloaded and installed Fusion 6.01. It "upgraded" my existing guest.

Since then, it's repeatedly thrown the error message "VMware Tools Core Service has stopped working".

I've uninstalled and re-installed the VMware tools multiple times. I've checked the "prevent app nap" box. I've restored the old VM guest from a backup and opened it up again.

I can restart the service (using the Windows 7 services manager) but it runs for a while then throws the same error.

I've included screen grabs of the information box -- it names MSVCR90.dll as the module that faults. Out of interest, I looked at the Control Panel / Uninstall Programs screen and saw that on the day I installed Fusion 6.01, an instance of the C++ 2008 Runtime Redistributable x64 was installed (there are several other flavors of the VC++ redistributable installed too: 2005/2008/2010, some x86 and some x64.)

Thanks for any and all advice on how I can fix this problem.

Duncan

[RJIn]

Welcome to community.

Could you try un-installing   C++ runtime or as you said "other flavors of the VC++ redistributable installed too: 2005/2008/2010, some x86 and some x64" completely and such kind of updates and the uninstall and re-install tools.

Also disable UAC inside Windows VM.

(take a back up probably before trying)

Lastly I would try unchecking "Open Mac files and web links using Windows applications" from Virtual machine>settings>default applications.

--Thanks

[DuncanSuss]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I'm very reluctant to remove programs from my Windows 7 installation that were there before I started trying Fusion 6.01 -- they are there because other programs installed them (and it's those programs that I actually need to work). Removing the instance that Fusion 6.01 installed is ok.

Turning off UAC is something I'll try, but first I have to restore the Fusion 6.01 from a TimeMachine backup -- it seems I cannot install the "free trial" version twice.

D.

[Coach300]

As long as you have the VM shut down, you have the ability to downgrade the compatibility to Fusion 5, as long as you still have a Fusion 5 installer (and possibly, the license code for 5). See my discussion on how I did this.

How old is your machine?

[DuncanSuss]

It's a MacBookPro 15" mid-2010 with 4GB ram.

I never had Fusion 5 -- the version I was running before was Fusion 3.something, under Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard?) so I can't go back to that level.

Fusion 3.whatever-it-was definitely would not run under Mavericks, which is how I ended up installing the free trial of Fusion 6.01 a few days ago.

Thanks for your help.

D.

[peter_h_hansen]

Had similar problem after upgrading from VMware Fusion 5.x to 6.0.1. Turns out that the folder VMware Tools located under Program Files in the guest OS (in my case Windows XP)  is not removed completely when the upgrade process begins and therefore the vmtoolsd.exe is the "old" one from the previous version of VMware Fusion.

The solutions was to uninstall the VMware Tools from the Guest System. Then restart and logon as an Administrator user account and Remove the folder named VMware under Program Files containing a subfolder named VMware Tools where the old vmtoolsd.exe is located. Also i did a cleanup of all entries in the registry database containing any reference to vmtoolsd.exe file. All this must be done with an user with administrative privileges e.g. the local computer administrator. Then reboot again and use the "Install the VMware Tools" option again to reinstall from scratch. This seems to finally has solved my problem with vmtoolsd.exe crashing on startup.

Peter

[DuncanSuss]

Thank you for sharing this information ... it sounds like a good candidate for the cause of the problem, and offers hope.

Doing (yet another) backup right now -- I restored the original (Fusion 3) guest vm last night and declined the offer when Fusion 6.01 asked if I wanted to upgrade it to the latest h/w version. I'll uninstall and attempt to purge all registry references to VMtools before letting Fusion 6.01 do any upgrades to it.

Thanks again!

[AnoopVmx · Accepted solution]

Try this one , from the menu bar of Fusion -->Virtual machine >settings >default applications simply uncheck the first option "Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications"

Then restart the virtual machine, i got rid of vmware tools crashing this way! This was suggested by vmware tech support team.

[DuncanSuss]

Thanks for this suggestion, AnoopVmx.

Did the tech support team mention why unchecking "Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications" would solve the problem?

(Or more significantly, why leaving it checked would cause vmdtoolsd.exe to crash?)

Appreciate your help -- thanks!

[harmv]

>Try this one , from the menu bar of Fusion -->Virtual machine >settings >default applications simply uncheck the first option

> "Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications"

>

>Then restart the virtual machine, i got rid of vmware tools crashing this way! This was suggested by vmware tech support team.

This worked for me too (vmware 6.0.2  with windows XP  VM).

[Duncan_Idaho1]

Finally !!! Thanks for the hints. A deinstalltion and removal of the remaining tools folder + disabling default applications did it for my XP3 guest.

[Kaiju]

Thanks, this works for me!

[DuncanSuss]

uncheck the first option "Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications"

This fixed the vmtoolsd.exe crashing.

Of course it makes Fusion a lot less useful -- being able to open files SEAMLESSLY in Mac or Win applications is a big part of the attraction.

Thanks Zypher.

p.s. forgot to mention -- re-enabling the option to open Mac files using Windows apps causes vmtoolsd.exe to crash almost immediately; disable = stable, enable = crash. I tried it several times with the same results.

[a18ion123]

Hi Peter,  Tried your suggestion, but with no success.  Still having VM Tools crash out despite following your detailed instructions.  And the other folks' suggestion of unchecking "Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications"  is really impractical since that's a feature I use all the time.  Very frustrating that Fusion upgrades are so poor.  I upgraded from 4 to 5, only to have so may problems that I rolled back to 4.  Spent another wasted $50 to upgrade to 6, and now will have to roll back to 4 again.  Seems Fusion 4 is the only version that actually works.

[DuncanSuss]

a18ion123 wrote:

... the other folks' suggestion of unchecking "Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications"  is really impractical since that's a feature I use all the time.

Exactly. Without the ability to seamlessly access files both sides of the os-divide, it's nowhere near as useful.

Fusion v3 was working just fine -- but wouldn't run on Mavericks. I hoped v6.0.2 would fix the bug ... but no, it still crashes immediately I check the box.

[a18ion123]

Duncan,  One thing I discovered is that you can uncheck the "Open your Mac files..." option but still have .doc and .xls files open in Fusion by changing the default "Open with" parameter in your Mac.  Here are the steps:

1. First you have to have checked the "Open your mac files..."  option in Fusion/Default Application settings.  This will allow your Mac to "see" the Windows/Fusion applications.  Wait a few moments for the effect to propagate in your Mac.

2.  In your Mac Finder, select any .doc (or.xls, .ppt, etc.) file you want opened in Windows.  Right click and choose "Get Info".  Near the bottom of the Get Info screen choose the Windows program you want to use in the "Open with.." drop-down box.  Your version of Fusion should be listed alongside the Windows program you want to use (assuming step 1 worked).

3.  Then choose "Change All...".  This will make the Windows/Fusion program the default Open With for all file extensions ending with .doc (or whatever file extensions you choose).

4.  After that you can uncheck the "Open your mac files..." option in Fusion/Default Applications because it will no longer be the deciding factor.  The settings you create in "Get Info" will be the controlling ones for files in your Mac's hard drive.

Personally, I don't keep any files in the Windows "C:\" drive, so all my files are accessed from the Mac side, but can be opened automatically with a click by the Windows VM, even without the Fusion/Default Applications check mark.  The only downside(?) to not having the check-mark is that the tiny icon next to a file name for a Windows file becomes a Mac "terminal" software icon, instead of a Word or Excel icon.  No big deal.

At least that worked for me.

Separately I rolled back to both Mountain Lion and Fusion v.5.0.4 since both Mavericks and Fusion v.6.0 were not behaving well enough yet to use.  And since I've moved up again from v.4.1.4 to v.5.0.4 Fusion seems to have ceased to grey out the "Unity" view, which was happening all the time, and which prevented Windows files from opening in the VM with a single click.

it shouldn't be this hard to do such mundane things...

[DuncanSuss]

Thanks, this could be a very usable workaround to what is clearly a bug in Fusion versions 6 (including 6.0.2).

"It shouldn't be this hard" -- too right.

[jcocteau]

Same issues!

I have found this upgrade very frustration; all settings for dual screens have been lost and with Mavericks settting these again was rather a nuisance! as for the Tools crashing well, its just very poor not to have had this noted and fixed! I will have to use the uncheck option for the moment as I like to use Unity!

Hopefully a fix is on the way?

"unchecking "Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications"  is really impractical since that's a feature I use all the time."

[caoslord]

Please fix this issue!!!

[paulring]

Found another issue that causes vmtoolsd.exe to not work on XP.  Recently installed an application that installed yet another version of Runtime VC++.  I removed both instances and reinstalled vmtools and now all is fine.

/r